The frayed and fragile reputation of Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival hangs on the outcome of hearings in Melbourne into the "Cobalt five" accused of using the banned substance, writes Michael Hutak.

Cobalt, the meteoric element the smarties swear can send a racehorse past its rivals like a hurtling comet, continues to cut a swathe through the ranks of the Australian turf. A recent rash of charges, hearings and detections related to the apparent cobalt doping of racehorses has left a stench of corruption hanging over the game's already ragged reputation.

Today, the group that has been dubbed the "Cobalt five" - including three of Australia's most successful trainers of recent years, Peter Moody, Danny O'Brien and Mark Kavanagh - will front Racing Victoria stewards in a closed hearing to "show cause" as to why they should not hand their licences in forthwith, even though the charges of administering cobalt will not be heard for some time.

When news of the high profile cobalt positives broke in January, I called then for vets to be licensed, bringing them into the same level of oversight of stewards as every other racing participant - a move that has since been twice announced and twice deferred in NSW.

Victoria's stewards have called the "show cause" hearing under a new rule created to avoid anything like the bagging they copped over the Damien Oliver affair in 2012, when officials were aware of the champion jockey's bets on a rival, but still allowed him to race through the carnival and in the Melbourne Cup, only then proceeding to prosecute and ban him from riding for 10 months.

Back in January, Sal Perna, Victoria's Racing integrity commissioner, saw no problem with Moody, O'Brien and Mark Kavanagh being allowed to continue training under a cloud, while others such as Jeff Kennett demanded Racing Victoria stand down the trio. Stipes themselves pledged to move fast to avoid a repeat of the Oliver debacle this spring.

If the trainers are stood down, they will have to cease their training operations until their charges are heard. With the huge Spring prize money on offer, not to mention the livelihoods of at least 100 staff, the trainers have reacted with rancour to the "show cause" demand.

In a long interview protesting his complete innocence, Moody said so many people have access to his horses he "cannot guarantee" they get to the races drug-free. But the buck stops with the licensed trainer, always has. Moody's late mentor, TJ Smith, who typically had scores of horses in his care, never complained about the size of his operation on his way to 33 successive Sydney premierships.

Danny O'Brien implied he'd been denied fair treatment by what he said was the stewards' "cavalier timing" of the show cause hearing. It's not like he hasn't had time to prepare his staff for just such a possibility. The elevated cobalt readings were announced in January and stewards took a further six months to actually lay charges.

A show cause hearing is a very dramatic move. It's saying: front up and tell us why (given the evidence we have) you shouldn't be stood down immediately. There's no requirement on the part of stewards to give any private notification beforehand of a public notice to attend a hearing.

Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Mark Kavanagh has had his personal discomfort magnified by the allegations surrounding his son Sam in NSW. But should "Kav" Snr be stood down, he has another son, Levi, who may be ready to step into the breach, having recently applied for his own licence.

Animal welfare groups are watching closely, with the RSPCA saying it would consider pressing criminal charges against those found to be doping cobalt to dangerous levels in horses.

And in a worrying move, since announcing today's hearing, stipes have started to wind back expectations of the outcome.

Racing Victoria has already taken too long to deal with this matter. With today's hearings to be conducted out of the public eye and, we understand, not under oath, RV is on notice: stewards need to be seen to be doing everything possible to protect the racing public from any further harm from corrupt activities. Anything less will be seen as more window dressing and media management.

Comments (28)

Comments for this story are closed.

Regionalgranny:

29 Jul 2015 11:19:37am

The thoroughbred industry has a beautiful product to be admired for it nearness to perfection. However, a wise person once told me to never bet on anything with legs. I have always adhered to this advice except for the office sweep on Melbourne Cup Day so to be involved in the social aspects of the day.

Dove:

Almost all human sporting endevours are fixed, crooked and corrupt with match fixing, spot fixing, drugs and gambling. Professional sport is rapidly becoming about as honest as professional wrestling.

Waging money off the performance of animals sublimates the creature to a beast of burden, to be selectively bred, most likely culled, and raced quite literally to death. Have a look at live baiting. Have a look at jumps racing. These people are the same ones that will tell you how much they love their animals. Sure.

Animals are property and their owners can dispose of them in whatever legal way they wish but we should be under no illusion as to the corruption and theft that underpins the racing industries. This is an industry that has enough laundered cash to pervert the politic process with complete disregard for the creatures that enable it. I don't suggest that we ban it but I wouldn't rub shoulders with that class of criminal to make money off an animal or my fellow man

Zing:

29 Jul 2015 3:44:42pm

There's very little to redeem it, aside from the public tax income perhaps.

But I suppose it should be placed in context. Most animals are exploited in some way. If I had to choose between six years as a racing horse or two weeks in the Coles meat department, I know which life I'd prefer.

You can also draw parallels between horse racing and competitive sport. The main difference is that when we run our footballers into the ground and their knees give out, we don't sell them to the glue factory.

dr dig:

Caffettierra Moka:

30 Jul 2015 12:35:41pm

The difference between that and the live-stock industry is that the people who raise and slaughter your steaks and chops are (allegedly) bound to codes of humane practice. When they found those dozens of greyhound carcasses in Qld that had just been shot and left there in the scrub you know that the talk of 'magnificent animals' and 'thoroughbreds' is just plain crap. They either perform, and perform early, or get killed at the earliest convenience. If you mistreated your pets (or your herd of cattle or sheep) like that you would be in front of the magistrate and due a huge fine or two.

Ducktagnan:

30 Jul 2015 8:17:39am

Couldn't agree more.I learned over 50 years ago how crooked the horse racing industry was ( along with the trots and greyhounds ).Everything that has happened since has only confirmed those early learnings.Crooked at all levels, with tacit approval from administration and government.There's simply too much money to be made - but only if you're in the know.

Stone Motherless Last:

29 Jul 2015 12:00:06pm

Horse racing has been declining since the early 1930s in Australia as measured by race day attendances. Only the introduction of the off course betting in the 1960s saved the industry. I've always seen thoroughbred racing as a rich person's hobby, ironically built on the back of the working class who continue to bet, without truly knowing how crooked (or not) the industry is.Every decade or so, there is adverse publicity, the various racing clubs announce an inquiry and within 3 to 6 months it is business as usual.

linda:

30 Jul 2015 12:08:36am

Horse racing is not bigger than ever. It is smaller. Horse racing has been totally eclipsed by sports betting as the preferred gambling medium of most punters, and as a general interest sport (which it very much was, a couple of generations ago) it is nowhere.

The TV and media coverage that it gets is bought and paid for by the industry itself, which should give you an idea of the sport's popularity. Can you imagine the AFL or Cricket Australia actually paying newspapers and TV stations big money every year to cover their sports? Of course not. But racing does.

jack:

hjt:

29 Jul 2015 11:12:20pm

Not all racing is "a rich person's hobby"; there are plenty of horses, often on country tracks, owned and trained by people of low income. They might have one horse and it might just place now and then on a country track but they have a lot of fun enjoying their horse and dreaming.

Stone Motherless Last:

30 Jul 2015 12:20:07pm

Although I suspect that the country battler owners are starting to thin out too. Apart from novelty events like Oakbank at Easter, the poor old bush racing clubs are closing down. Nevertheless, your point is well made.

Blanik:

truebloo:

29 Jul 2015 3:16:44pm

The general consensus of those who follow racing is that the small trainers get maximum penalties but the big trainers get off scott free because the industry can't get along without them. You might even say that all trainers are equal, but some are more equal than others. (sound familiar ??).

IMO there is a way to stop it, but it's a bit radical.

When these illegal substances are found - Ban the horse for life. Yes, the horse - not the trainer. That way the owners will lose large amounts of money and the trainer will have to answer to them, probably in court. On top of this fine the trainer AND the ownership of the horse, and send the proceeds to animal welfare.

linda:

29 Jul 2015 11:59:36pm

Most horses in work at any given time are geldings, so for the vast preponderance of owners, that would be a non-penalty.

Banning a horse from racing if it tests positive punishes those least likely to be complicit in doping, which is the owners. If you have ever had a horse in work, you would know that the trainer has more or less total control over what happens to the horse in the stable. It is a pretty basic principle of our justice system that you don't punish people who are not guilty of wrongdoing and who are unaware of it occurring.

Craig of North Brisbane:

29 Jul 2015 4:05:53pm

It seems that the whole sorry business is corrupt as well as brutal and inhumane for the poor animals involved. Time to start phasing out the barbaric practice of racing animals for the amusement of humans, surely?

Erick Quang:

29 Jul 2015 10:47:30pm

If horse racing were banned it would result in a lot of unemployment, not a good idea, if you worked in the racing industry you would find there is less corruption there, than most other industries ,it seems you made this post out of mistaken emotion rather than proper observation.

Tiger Tim:

30 Jul 2015 9:44:12am

"...brutal...inhumane..."

Pretty harsh words... my family are part owners of about 20 horses and they are treated like kings...they are far better looked after than the majority of dogs and cats are. Balanced nutrition, constant vet care, fitness regime, bathes, massages and the majority of the time (i.e. periods of spelling) they are actually out in a paddock frolicking around without a care in the world.

If that's brutal, inhumane then I would like some of that treatment please....

Nunamara:

29 Jul 2015 5:45:40pm

The biggest dysfunctions in racing began when the administration became controlled by people with backgrounds in finance, as opposed to those whose main interest was in the sport. We cannot let the industry be ruined. The vast majority of people in it are good, honest folk and the world would be a much more dismal place without it.

Erick Quang:

Dave:

29 Jul 2015 8:54:40pm

I used to love watching the races, now all I see is expensive dog food running, dog food that in most cases will not even be given a respectful death.Very few owners/breeders look after the horses after racing.

Lindsay Wilson:

29 Jul 2015 9:04:26pm

There are rules and cheats that wish to bypass them in all sports and racing is no exception. The "greed factor" is not a new phenomenon where punting for big returns or million dollar stud careers after racing based on performances that may not reflect the horse's true ability because of drugs. Australian racing administrators made a fundamental mistake in raising the accepted international 50ppm cobalt level to 200 parts per million which in turn tempted trainers to run horses up to 199 ppm with no offence or warning being issued. Completely clean horses and trainers were then at a disadvantage just the same as punters or losing owners. The offending trainers that came in at over 200ppm have to be rubbed out and as a belated but sensible response the racing authorities here need to conform with HK, Singapore and Japan's standards. Leaving it at 200ppm is begging for trouble because 50 is the highest level any horse can record by it's own naturally produced cobalt.

Erick Quang:

29 Jul 2015 10:38:15pm

There was a time when gingering a horse, in which a piece of ginger was inserted into a horses rectum to make it run faster use to be the method of choice of the unsavory elements of horse racing, as advances in drug technoligy have evolved the sophistication in performance enhancing substances has advanced also. The answer lies in more efficient drug detecting apparatus and methods to detect horse racing cheats ,rather than ban horse racing that some clowns have suggested, which would result in huge unemployment.